Elevators typically have ropes used for suspending the elevator car. Often, they also comprise a counterweight suspended by the same ropes as the elevator car. The ropes are provided with one or more load bearing members that bear the weight of the load suspended by the ropes. The ropes may be round in cross section or belt-shaped. The round ropes generally comprise only one load bearing member, whereas belt-shaped ropes generally comprise one wide load bearing member or several load bearing members spaced apart in the width direction of the rope. A load bearing member is conventionally a bundle of steel wires twisted together but also load bearing members made of fiber-reinforced composite material exist. Document WO2009090299A1 discloses one recently developed structure for load bearing member of this kind.
An elevator rope may get damaged during its use for various reasons. The damaging is generally caused by common wear, but unpredictable events may occur in the elevator environment as well. A problem is that a damage, normally very small at first, easily expands and eventually requires that the ropes are replaced. For the rope is determined a safe service life, measured e.g. in time of use or in amount of use, which is chosen so that dangerous damages are not likely to be formed within the service life of the rope. A drawback with any rope according to prior art is that eventually they need to be replaced. In particular, replacement of ropes earlier than scheduled, causes costs, whereby this should be avoided. Ropes having load bearing parts made of fiber-reinforced composite material have a long service life, but the ropes being valuable, it would be preferable if the service life could be even longer.